A visit to Oxford on a Sunday in the early summer is not the joy it once may have been. As a tourist you are far from alone. As we overwhelm the capacity of the City the signs appear on every wall, on every gate, in every frame of your future memories to advise you not to do this, refrain from doing that and don’t even think of doing the other. With few exceptions each opening in the sturdy sign emblazoned walls is a toll booth, each college gate a statement of privilege, each gatekeeper a self-entitled protector of the riches beyond.  And so it was with some relief that we found the Modern Art Oxford gallery.
 
An industrial space stripped bare, white painted, lightly cooled and seemingly far from the madding crowd outside. And therein, the work and story of Ruth Asawa. We are struck by the contradiction with the City in which it sits.
 
Asawa describes the continuity of her surfaces from inside to out, without border or barrier. Her vessels of open mesh invite all to appreciate their depth and diversity. The curvaceousness of her elegant forms employ the tension of gravity,  while the compressive geometric masses divide the City outside. Her language is embedded in the processes of a pragmatic nature, not soaring above us all in dreaming spires. She finds beauty in the unexpected, learning and teaching with Buckminster Fuller the liberty of synergy in place of the rigourous syllabus. And her work is one of the rare free delights in this City of the tourist dollar, on show until 21 August 22.

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Finally, curiosity is stirring in us again after an irritating crisscross through Oxford, exploring a city in our own way, always following our nose, where could there be something distinctive that characterizes this place, makes it interesting for us.

Oxford appears to us above all disjointed in the visible as well as in the heard space: historic buildings, postmodernism, the Thames, slobbering pedal boats, larger ones with party music, the great pasture with a lonely researcher and energetic cattle with horns growing in their heads, overlaid with tourists led in groups, young people preferably snacking, picnicking, with paper bags from Zara accompanying our paths and after all the entry barriers or prohibition signs that so measured our curiosity here, a cool half pint of cider on this hot day finally reawakened our ambition already on the way back to the station - recommended by Yael: Modern Art Oxford, Ruth Asawa!

The calm and centeredness in her work for us quite in contrast to the outside world, finely knitted wire objects, vessels just not, delicate spun around volumes that play with the merging of inside and outside, airy continuum, or filigree growth, play of light and shadow, inspirations from her garden, geometry, poetics and peace, quiet breathing, let me drift, beauty....

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Endlich regt sich in uns wieder die Neugier nach einem irritierenden Kreuz und Quer durch Oxford, auf unsere Weise eine Stadt zu erkunden, immer der Nase nach, wo könnte es etwas Markantes geben, was diesen Ort charakterisiert, ihn für uns interessant macht.

Oxford erscheint uns vor allem zerpflückt im sichtbaren wie im gehörten Raum: historische Gebäude, Postmoderne, die Themse, schlabbernde Tretboote, größere mit Partymusik, die große Weide mit einem einsamen Forscher und energetischen Rindern mit in ihrem Kopf wachsenden Hörnern, überlagert von in Gruppen geführten Touristen, jungen Menschen, die vorzugsweise snacked, picknickend, mit Papiertaschen von Zara unsere Wege begleitend und nach all den Eintrittsschranken oder Verbotsschildern, die unsere Neugier hier so maßregelten, erweckte ein kühler half pint Cider an diesem heißen Tag schon auf dem Weg zurück zum Bahnhof unsere Ambitioniertheit erneut - von Yael empfohlen: Modern Art Oxford, Ruth Asawa! Die Ruhe und Zentriertheit in Ihrer Arbeit für uns ganz im Kontrast zur Außenwelt, fein gestrickte Drahtobjekte, Gefäße eben nicht, zart umsponnene Volumina, die mit dem Verschmelzen von innen und außen spielen, luftiges Kontinuum, oder filigranes Wachstum, Spiel von Licht und Schatten, Inspirationen aus ihrem Garten, Geometrie, Poetik und Frieden, ruhiges Atmen, mich treiben lassen, Schönheit...